District Purchases Final Piece of Land for Bond Project

The USD 480 school district has now purchased all of the land toward the bond project for the new schools in Liberal. The last piece of the puzzle was approved at Monday night’s school board meeting. The board approved the purchase of land through imminent domain of the future Meadowlark Elementary at 11th and Calvert. The judge set the price at 180,100 dollars.

The board approved an expenditure of 20 thousand dollars for a new teen court program. The Liberal city commission and the Seward County Commission already approved their parts in the program. The new teen court will mean kids who committed a first criminal offense will be judged by their peers in teen court. Kids will volunteer to be the judge, jury, lawyers, etc. It is an alternative for the court system. If kids complete their punishment through the teen court, it would not go on their record.

The board heard a presentation on the ESL program at Liberal High School. They heard from a boy who traveled 35 days from Guatemala to be with his parents in Liberal. There are 56 ESL kids at LHS who do not speak English.

The USD 480 board voted to extend the contracts for superintendent Paul Larkin and deputy superintendent Renae Hickert through the 2016-17 school year.